Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) yesterday said that Nigeria’s solid minerals sector contributed the total sum of N52.75 billion to the federation’s revenue in 2017 fiscal year.
It said the revenue represented a 21 per cent increase from the N43.22 billion the sector contributed to the federation’s purse in 2016.
A statement from NEITI’s Director of Communications and Advocacy, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, stated that this information was contained in an independent reconciliation of company payments and government receipts in the sector by the transparency agency.
The statement equally disclosed that Nigeria’s limestone production capacity increased to 10.6 billion tonnes within the year under consideration from 2.3 billion tonnes owing to the discovery of some deposits in 14 states.
It said: “From the sector’s total revenue contribution of N52.75 billion, payments to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accounted for N49.162 billion which is about 93 per cent of the total revenues realised during the period under review.
“Payments to the Mines Inspectorate Department (MID) and Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) amounted to N1.59 billion and N2.08 billion or about three per cent and four per cent respectively of the total revenue from the sector.”
“Except for revenue from MID, there was significant increase in revenue from all other streams in 2017. A trend analysis of the revenue flows showed that there has been a very remarkable increase in revenue accruing to the Federation from the solid minerals sector from 2013 to 2017, though 2016 witnessed a decrease of 31.02 per cent compared to 2015.”
NEITI stated that other revenue flows from the solid minerals included sub-national payments, adding that these are direct payments to states and local governments as a result of national laws, contractual obligations or local regulations which are disclosed as unilateral disclosures by the extractive companies.
“The total payment was N2.877 billion representing about 5.45 per cent of total government revenue from the sector,” it further explained.
On production, the NEITI noted that its solid minerals report disclosed that 35.33 million metric tons of minerals valued at N32.78 billion was produced in Nigeria during the same period.
According to it, a breakdown of the production showed that limestone, granite and laterite accounted for 85.72 per cent of the total minerals produced with limestone alone contributing about 55 per cent of the production volumes.
However, in value terms, it said that granite and limestone contributed 37.28 per cent and 35.57 per cent respectively.
On state-by-state contribution, it said that Ogun State produced the highest quantity of minerals in terms of both volume and value.
“The state accounted for over one-third of total production quantity and 23 per cent of the total minerals production value. The contributions by Ogun and Kogi States put together accounted for over half of the total production quantity,” NEITI explained.
It further stated that the two states led in limestone as major minerals produced in the states. However, in terms of production value, it said that Ogun, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Kogi states accounted for 23 per cent, 20 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
“A review of minerals production by states also shows that with the exception of the Federal Capital Territory, there was a material decline in states production in terms of both quantity and value.
“Total production quantity decreased from 41.87 million metric tons valued at N34.09 billion in 2016 to 35.33 million metric tons valued at N32.78 billion in 2017. The figure represented a decline of 15.64 per cent in production volumes and 3.83 per cent in production value in 2017,” it stated further.
NEITI said that Dangote Cement dominated activities in minerals production in 2017, taking up about 46 per cent of the total minerals production that year.
“Other big players in the sector included Lafarge Cement Plc., CGC Nigeria Limited and Julius Berger Plc. The four companies produced over 27 million tons of minerals, representing 77.31 per cent of the total minerals production quantity and over 60 per cent of the production value,” NEITI explained.
The sector’s contribution to employment in 2017, NEITI said was about 0.3 per cent of Nigeria’s total employment, same as the figure recorded in 2016.
The statement also affirmed that artisanal and small-scale miners currently dominate the sector.
On the solid mineral sector’s contribution to exports, the NEITI stated that about 16.34 million metric tons of minerals valued at $29.90 million was exported in 2017.
According to it: “Nigeria’s total export was about N13.60 trillion with solid minerals contributing N77.23 billion or 0.57 per cent of total export in 2017.”
“The major destination of Nigeria’s export during the year under review is China. The country accounted for 68 per cent of the total export value during the year. Other destinations are Malaysia, Vietnam and India.
“The report however observed that export data received from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) include minerals that were not captured in the production data provided by the MID as well as inconsistency in FOB value of minerals,” said the statement.
